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Almondo Sewell never lost sensation in his hands and feet, but was none-the-less pretty rattled.

The Edmonton Eskimos defensive tackle took a shot to the head trying to field a punt Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and needed to be stretchered off the field.

He spent a few hours in a Regina hospital before being released and was in attendance, watching practice Monday.

“It was scary, I’m not going to lie,” Sewell said. “A couple of my friends text me and they wanted to know if I was alright. But after I got all the results back from the doctors in Saskatchewan, everything was fine.

“I feel good, I’m alright. I miss-judged the ball as it was in the air, it kept on blowing forward as I was trying to catch it. It dropped off my hands, I went to try and recover it and got kicked in the head. That was about it.”

On the special teams unit at the time, Sewell was on his way back to set up a return when the ball held up in the wind and came down towards him. After bobbling the ball, Sewell dove to recover it, taking a shot to the head in the process.

“When I dropped the ball and I grabbed it back, I got kicked in the ear-hole as I went down,” Sewell said. “I didn’t lose any sensation, I was just making sure that when I rolled over I could feel everything, so I know there wasn’t anything broken in my back or anything. I was pretty good, I was fine.”

Sewell may have been fine, but his teammates were still concerned. They all made their way onto the field to wish him luck once he was strapped on to the stretcher prior to being loaded into an ambulance.

“You’re concerned about the player’s health, but we were encouraged by the fact he had feeling in his hands and his legs and he was moving about pretty well,” said Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed.

“But our medical staff and their medical staff did a phenomenal job the way they handled the situation. Whenever you see a player off in a stretcher, you’re going to be concerned.”

According to Reed, Sewell has yet to be fully evaluated by team doctors and does not know the extent of his injury.

If the Eskimos were playing tomorrow, the University of Akron product would not be available. However, the team is waiting on a full evaluation before ruling him out of Friday’s game against the Calgary Stampeders at Commonwealth Stadium.

“Almondo plays the game the right way, he plays it at 1,000 percent, he doesn’t go slow at any time,” Reed said.

“When you see Almondo go down, or any player, it’s a bit of a heart-wrencher. But we knew things were going to be pretty good for him based on his being assess and what was being said and how he was responding.”

Perhaps the toughest part for the Eskimos was heading back on the field and playing the remainder of the contest. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to pull out victory, falling 14-9 to the Roughriders.

“It’s tough because it happens in the middle of the game and there’s a big timeout,” said Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly.

“Any time you spend that much time standing around, you get cold, but add to that fact you have one of your teammates on the ground, they’re cutting his jersey off, they’re bringing a stretcher out, the human side of you takes over.

“You see what he’s going through and your heart goes out to him and you’re obviously very concerned for his safety and well-being. But as soon as he’s off the field, you have to be able to flip the switch, continue and get back to play and play at a high level.”

As Advertised in the Edmonton SUN

Eskimos rally around Sewell after ‘scary’ shot to head

Almondo Sewell never lost sensation in his hands and feet, but was none-the-less pretty rattled.

The Edmonton Eskimos defensive tackle took a shot to the head trying to field a punt Saturday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders and needed to be stretchered off the field.

He spent a few hours in a Regina hospital before being released and was in attendance, watching practice Monday.

“It was scary, I’m not going to lie,” Sewell said. “A couple of my friends text me and they wanted to know if I was alright. But after I got all the results back from the doctors in Saskatchewan, everything was fine.

“I feel good, I’m alright. I miss-judged the ball as it was in the air, it kept on blowing forward as I was trying to catch it. It dropped off my hands, I went to try and recover it and got kicked in the head. That was about it.”